Conceptual Issues in the Dissemination and Reception of Genomics

paul Griffiths, University of Pittsburgh，“基因组学传播和接受中的概念问题”。该提案是由英国经济和社会研究委员会（ESRC）的社会科学计划和美国国家科学基金会（NSF）的工程、科学和技术研究计划和社会维度计划宣布的一项美英合作计划。拟议的研究旨在利用英国埃克塞特大学ESRC社会基因组学中心（EGenIS）和匹兹堡大学历史和科学哲学系代表基因项目（RGP）中存在的互补知识和技能基础。EGenIS的三个主要研究方向之一是基因语义学，它的定义是研究基因组科学中使用的术语，以及当科学语言被其他专业领域和公众所采用时，这些术语的含义是如何转变的。EGenIS拥有一群杰出的研究人员，他们在哲学和社会学调查方面具有专业知识，他们从事访谈和相关文献中获得的材料的话语分析。代表基因项目是对当代生物学研究人员在遗传要素概念化及其作用方面的概念多样性的主张进行的实证研究，这些主张来自分子生物学历史和哲学文献。该研究采用基于网络的问卷形式，针对分子生物学研究人员。拟议的合作是对遗传要素概念化和基因组学结果传播给更广泛受众的过程之间相互作用的研究。根据对遗传因素及其作用的不同概念来表述相同的研究结果，预计将使这些更广泛的受众产生明显不同的理解。进一步预期，传播过程将产生系统的影响，遗传因素及其活动的概念化将用于向更广泛的受众传播研究结果。两组目前使用的方法将在本研究的不同方面相互补充。“代表基因”项目调查研究中关于遗传要素概念及其作用的发现将用于指导基因组学传播的定性研究。语篇分析将用于丰富和进一步探索有关概念多样性的调查结果。“代表基因”项目开发的技术将用于积极操纵话语分析确定的变量，这些变量与更广泛的受众对基因组发现的接受有关，以便检验关于这些变量影响的假设。建议的研究将涉及本科生（REU）的研究经验，开展基于文献的基因组学特定结果传播研究。大学社会与城市研究中心已经同意为这些学生提供一个“实验室”设置的物理空间，在那里他们可以定期与PI和Co-PI以及参与代表基因项目和本研究的HPS研究生进行互动。

Project AbstractSES 0323496Paul Griffiths, University of Pittsburgh"Conceptual Issues in the Dissemination and Reception of Genomics"This proposal is intended as a US-UK collaboration under the scheme announced by the Science in Society Programme of the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Science and Technology Studies program and Societal Dimensions of Engineering, Science, and Technology program of NSF. The proposed research is designed to make use of the complementary bases of knowledge and skills that exist in the ESRC Center for Genomics in Society (EGenIS) at the University of Exeter, UK, and in the Representing Genes Project (RGP) in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. One of the three main strands of research at EGenIS is genosemantics, defined as the study of the terminology used in genomic science and how its meanings are transformed as the language of science is adopted by other areas of expertise and by the general public. EGenIS has a distinguished group of researchers with expertise in philosophical and sociological inquiry who are engaged in discourse analysis of material obtained in interviews and from relevant literature. The Representing Genes project is an empirical study of claims from the literature in the history and philosophy of molecular biology about conceptual diversity in the conceptualization of genetic elements and their action by contemporary biological researchers. The study takes the form of a web-based questionnaire targeted at researchers in molecular biology. The proposed collaboration is a study of the interaction between conceptualizations of genetic elements and the process by which the results of genomics are disseminated to wider audiences. It is expected that representations of the same findings based on different conceptualizations of genetic elements and their action will result in significantly different understandings on the part of those wider audiences. It is further expected that the process of dissemination will have systematic effects on which conceptualizations of genetic elements and their activities are used to communicate findings to wider audiences. The methodologies currently in use by the two groups will complement one another in different aspects of this study. Findings concerning the conceptualization of genetic elements and their action from the survey research of the Representing Genes project will be used to guide qualitative research into the dissemination of genomics. Discourse analysis will be used to enrich and further explore the survey findings concerning conceptual diversity. Techniques developed in the Representing Genes project will be used to actively manipulate variables identified by discourse analyses as relevant to the reception of genomic findings by wider audiences so as to test hypotheses about the effect of those variables. The proposed study would involve research experiences for undergraduates (REU), conducting literature based studies of the dissemination of specific results in genomics. The University Center for Social and Urban Research has agreed to provide physical space for these students in a "lab" setting where they can interact on a regular basis with the PI and Co-PI and with the HPS graduate students involved in the Representing genes Project and in this study.